


Chrysanthemum and Nightingale Thorns

by solarpillar (solarwind)



Category: Ciel: The Last Autumn Story
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 11:11:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1302742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarwind/pseuds/solarpillar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Old magic, they say, is more about raw power than skills, more about trades than casting.</p><p>Gold that takes you to the sky.</p><p>Red that takes your enemies six inches below.</p><p>Power does not need consent.</p><p>Old magic AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red

He doesn’t mind his own hair being cut, no, that he doesn’t mind as much. But January’s hair? Unforgivable.

Old magic, they say, is less about spells and fields and more about true names screamed or whispered, and blood and cut or pulled nails and fallen teeth and cleaned bones and cut hair braided into ropes and added to potions in giant cast iron cauldrons. It is more about raw power than skills, more about trades than casting.

And what is more precious than body parts of a monster that whispers death with each true name called? Demons and dragons, perhaps. But for a mortal, this is worthy of a king. The red hair for the monster of Lightsphere is worth more than gold. Blood and flesh, even more.

January doesn’t even struggle anymore. Only Daughter rattles the cage as his friend’s hair is cut strand by strand, to be weaved into ribbons and hid into ropes. They whisper the name of king’s enemies into these red, and the king’s position is secure. The monster doesn’t even need to open his mouth.

Daughter can do nothing but roar and scream and pull his own ankles and wrists bloody, a trapped and shaved lion. Outside the cage, red fall like dead damselflies on snow white sheets.

It isn’t long before the damselflies disappear and a brighter, liquid red start to flow.

 

 

 

This is the story of the last autumn on Earth, and the last red before the end.

 


	2. King

It is known that mages belong to the Queen, as per Laws and Tradition. But the Laws have loopholes. Mages, indeed, must belong to the Queen. Things, however, may belong to the king.

If mages become things, then the King can claim as many as he wants, as many as he likes.

Mages are mages as long as they are human. A criminal mage is still a mage. Even a dead mage is still a mage. The loophole is difficult to abuse, if you insist on getting one whole and nice. The trick, here, is fragmentation.

A stolen lock of hair from a mage is not a mage, it is a memento. A clipped nail from a mage is a piece of nail, not a mage. And so on. A piece is not the whole being, and therefore not bound by the same laws as the full being, freed from its  _droits et devoirs_. The laws cannot protect them no long, and their duties need not to be fulfilled.

The young Lightsphere is a pretty thing in King Tenial’s eyes, and the king only wishes this naive boy is a mage. He’d keep the boy’s warm red hair in a lock around the fingers like an engagement ring.

But if January Lightsphere becomes fragments and pieces, then Tenial would never to able to taste his cooking. Not that it’s ever made for him, of course. It was always for this handsome servant of Krohiten, named Daughter despite being a model manly man, with hair of bright gold so gorgeous, the Queen looks like a homely valley girl next to him. No wonder January is so in love. Tall blond beauties look so charming.

Tenial isn’t in a hurry. He can wait. Perhaps, one day, January will leave Daughter and come to him. Perhaps, one day, January will come to him because of Daughter. For Daughter. Because this man named Daughter has murder in his eyes, and soon he’ll kill somebody, be arrested, and then Daughter will belong to Tenial. And that will be when January will come to him, to get Daughter to safety in exchange of his own life.

And then, Tenial might even get a mage in one piece at least, even if he will have to cut him apart to use him.

So many mages. So beautiful, each and every of them. Little doves that circle around the Queen. Cut them apart and they belong to the King.

One day, Tenial will be sleeping with arms and legs of dead pretty boy mages in lieu of the queen.


	3. Queen

Mages. Citizens. Children.

Children and adults and ageless beings.

All under the protection of the Queen.

 

Octavia is still learning to become a queen.


End file.
